Chapter Six #3
It was clear that Ethan had felt protective about Tora then, and now.
Interesting.
“Thank you,” she said, when Mac handed her and Ethan cups, and then made two more for himself and Tora.
When she focused on the cop behind the desk, she was to the point.
“I like to check in with the local LEOS when I’m on a case. It helps us keep the communication open, so there is no mistakes as the case is handed over.”
The man made his own cup of coffee, but he side-eyed Mac something fierce.
There was no love lost there.
He likely handed them this case because it was going to be a shitshow.
“Oh, well, I appreciate that. How is this case looking? When my detectives pulled the vagrant, I had no clue they would be getting a room with eyeballs in it.”
Oh, she bet.
“My team has determined there are ten sets of eyes—give or take a few. There are also skulls, but not as many to match up with the eyes. I’ve passed them off to my anthropologist, and with my ME’s assistance, they are going to get me COD, if possible, so I can try to determine their identities.”
He sipped his coffee.
“How long will that take?” he asked.
Ethan nudged her.
Oh, and she got it.
“Well, how long would it take your lab to determine DNA on twenty sets of eyes?” she asked.
He shrugged.
“Months.”
Here was her way in.
“Well, then, lucky for you, it’ll take us about a day or two. I’ll have the full DNA information by tomorrow night, or the next day. That will give me ID—if they are in CODIS.”
He sat there.
“Is this going to be a rough one?” he asked. “I go there because the city council is riled up. You might have to have a conversation with them if it gets a lot of media. You tend to do that.”
She sipped her coffee, and measured her words carefully.
“I do that because I’m good. I catch the killers, or I dog them until I run them into the ground. What the media says, or does, is inconsequential to me. What I say and do is more my problem.”
He didn’t say anything.
That was the smartest thing he’d done so far.
“Anywho,” she said, taking her shot. “I’m going to run this, but I need a little help. Coming into this city, I need cops who are familiar with the town, the people in it, and the locations.”
He nodded, and picked up what she was saying.
“I can give you cops.”
She pointed.
“I want these two.”
When Frank looked over at them, he looked surprised, and then said one thing.
“Detectives, can I speak to the agent alone?”
Did he just downgrade her job from Deputy Director of the FBI to agent? Or had he misspoke?
Oh, this was going to be fun.
For her.
Not him.
The two cops got up, and headed out. They closed the door behind them, and the looks on their faces said one thing.
They were about to be removed from a really fun case.
When they were gone, Frank went there.
“I have more experienced cops you can use. Those two don’t really handle the big cases for a reason.”
She lifted a brow.
“Oh, why? They seemed very capable. They handled this with professionalism and brought a good deal to the table before I asked.”
The man scoffed.
“Well, they have the least time here as detectives. I have some male detectives that might…”
Ethan tensed.
Oh, she knew why.
He knew an asshole when he saw one.
“Nope. I want them. They know the scene, and it’ll be good for them to learn. Unless you need Detective Quinley around to make the coffee for the men and yourself.”
That’s when she saw it.
Oh, there it was.
Here came the chauvinistic bullshittery that fueled her. It was time to have fun.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
She glanced over.
“Ethan?”
He went there.
“The male detective was closer to the coffee pot, but your instinct was to have the woman do it. You made sure not to tell them to pull up a chair, instead, making them stand like they were part of the furniture, and not people. Your disdain for the male detective was clear when he was making the coffee to have his partner’s back.
You don’t like him because he didn’t fall in line with your chauvinism. ”
The captain said nothing.
But Elizabeth knew Ethan had nailed it.
“I like the underdog,” Elizabeth said. “I want them. She will work best with me, simply because I’m accustomed to the man trying to keep me down.
As you can see, I reached the top, and if for one second, you think it was by blowing men, I’d like to point out that isn’t my style.
I’m more of a steamroller kind of a girl. ”
The man cleared his throat.
Only, she cut him off.
“What’s the name of the council member I need to speak to?” she asked, not letting him say shit.
As far as she was concerned, this man could kick rocks right off the side of a cliff.
While wearing an anvil around his neck.
Honestly, at this point in her life, she didn’t have the time or inclination to deal with someone’s bullshit.
She wanted this case, and that was the bottom line.
Period.
“His name is Trenton Balkin.”
She looked at her smart watch. Well, it looked as if she was making a stop there.
Or better yet, she’d send Corbin and Alex.
Both men could handle that while she was visiting the owner of the rundown building.
“Thank you. Oh, and Captain, can you make sure that Trenton knows we’re heading that way? Give him a call, and tell him to be ready for a visit from someone on my team.”
He said nothing, but he wanted to.
Oh, someone was controlled, patient, and she bet--calculating.
That was for damn sure.
“I’d appreciate it.”
He was curious.
“Is there anything I need to know about the case?” he asked. “Since you’re supposed to be checking in with me, and I haven’t heard anything new that I didn’t already know?”
She smiled.
“Eyeballs, skulls, massive trauma, and multiple victims. That’s all I know so far,” she admitted, lying her ass off. “When I know, you’ll know.”
That was a lie, too.
They knew plenty.
And he’d not hear jack shit from her. From here on out, she was running this her way.
At the door, she stopped.
“Oh, and thanks for the coffee,” she said. “It’s pretty good. I appreciate it.”
Then, they walked out.
Now, she had to get to the morgue, release all the CSIs, and commandeer it. Chris was going to have to get Alexi to keep the whole ‘embalmed’ thing out of any reports that went to the captain, for now.
It had been easier to just not go there than to dance around it. If he didn’t ask, she wasn’t really culpable, now was she?
Outside the door, they saw the two detectives at their desks, and they had gotten comfy.
That told her one thing.
They expected her to dump them.
Yeah, she didn’t roll that way.
They’d yet to give her a reason to dump them. As she approached, she had news for them.
“Uh, Detectives, when you’re working with me, you don’t sit on the job unless I’m getting cozy at a desk. Get your badges, and your guns. We have a case to work,” she said.
They both looked surprised, but they did as she said.
As they began walking out, ahead of the detectives, Ethan was to the point.
“I hope you have room for a few more balls in the air. You’re about to be balancing them. Oh, and I don’t want to hear jack shit to Chris about him swiping an ME. You plan on stealing two detectives. Felonious job napping.”
She snorted.
And said nothing.
Her mind wasn’t made up either way yet. While she knew Tora wanted to be a Fed, by her own volition, it took a lot. If she was going to give them a shot, she needed to watch them more, and see if they could hack it.
Her team was special.
It was do or die.
Mostly because they could die at any time. Not everyone was cut out to chase crazies.
That was the bottom line.
“We’ll see,” she admitted.
Outside, they headed toward the morgue, and that’s when the two detectives caught up.
“How did you pull that off?” Mac asked. “He hates our guts because we don’t grovel.”
She knew it was more than that. It was one hundred percent a boy’s club. He disliked that Tora was a woman, and that told her she likely was good at her job.
He disliked Mac because he was loyal, and stood up for his partner.
When she came to a stop, she was to the point.
“It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission,” she said. “Remember that.”
Tora actually wrote that down.
The woman was in her late thirties, and she was still a sponge, wanting to learn. Mac was in his mid thirties, and loyal.
Yeah, she could handle that.
“I’m going to be honest. I don’t let men tell me no. Ask the husbands. They’ll tell you. He told me no more dogs, and don’t you know that I have another German Shepherd puppy coming my way?”
Ethan laughed.
“We had a deal. You got that dog because of that. If I had my way, Kanje, Sungila, and Raven would be it.”
She shrugged.
Two nights ago, she dreamed about Babylon.
God.
That was her soul dog, and she missed him.
That’s why she told Callen get her a long-haired floof that looked like him. She was trying to find that love again. He’d been the best dog, likely because his original owner had abused him, and she’d loved him more than any other creature on earth.
“Anyway, he wanted to replace you both. That makes me curious as to why.”
Mac pointed at his partner.
“He’s a lecherous douchebag. I have my partner’s back. We work well together. She’s the brains, and I’m the muscle.”
She sighed, making Ethan laugh.
She’d just thought she wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but the bottom line was she liked a gamble.
And this was a big one.
Elizabeth did something she rarely did. She told them her plans up front.
Normally, she hired someone after they proved themselves. This time, she wanted to see how motivated they’d be. That mattered too on her team.
“Well, that’s shitty—the first part. Loyalty matters to me, as does work ethic. I don’t ask anyone to do anything I don’t already do.”
They didn’t say anything.
“If you work this case, and you show me that you’re competent detectives, there is room on my team in Damascus for two more agents. I’m willing to open that door for you to step through it.”
They both stared at each other.